


Ma'at's Blessings

by Merfilly



Category: Prince of Egypt (1998)
Genre: M/M, Yuletide, Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-10 04:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Always getting him in trouble, yet Moses knows how to make it better for Ramses</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ma'at's Blessings

**Author's Note:**

> Yuletide Import Version: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1635581

"I had you at that last turn, you slug of a hippopotamus!" Ramses laughed heartily, as the two young men guided their horses and chariots down the long stretch of columns leading out of the funerary city.

"Ha! The sun has taken your sense of sight, dear brother!" Moses called back, flicking his reins a bit, spurring a little more speed from his own horse. Ramses responded in kind, pushing the final stretch of the race back to the Nile, where their barge waited to take them home to the palace. He spared one last glance at his brother, before turning his attention to the causeway in front of them...just in time to pull up as hard as he could on the reins.

Moses, likewise, saw the procession of offerings coming toward the temple, and tried desperately to pull his beast in. When he realized that wouldn't work, he instead pulled hard to the side, jerking the horse off the causeway, between the ancient columns. It was probably a good thing he had quick reflexes, Moses thought in a daze when his chariot stopped...a little ahead of the horse that had been pulling it...and he could be thankful to Anubis for protecting the travelers.

"Moses?" Ramses came, looking less a Prince and more in a panic, down the side of the causeway to him. Moses let out a laugh to show he wasn't hurt, at least not much, and smiled up at his brother.

"I think, maybe, I need to not talk to you so much when we do this!"

`~`~`~`~`

Moses tried very hard not to flinch as he heard the stern lecture going on. He knew he should be receiving it just as much as Ramses, but his brother was the heir apparent, not him. Seti had decided this time, with their reckless racing, to personally scold them, instead of leaving it to a vizier or one of the women at court.

There had to be something he could do to make it better, something to keep Ramses from freezing up into the whole 'I am to be the morning sun' routine. He listened for a few moments more, his keen ears catching the beginning of the lesson detailing just what Ma'at truly meant, and sneaked away as quietly as he had come to eavesdrop.

`~`~`~`~`

Ramses kept his eyes respectfully down as he listened to his father, Seti, speak of duty and recklessness, and not choosing the easy path. As he did so, he could feel a shame at war with rebellion in his heart. Yes, he would be pharaoh one day. Yes, he loved his father, and wished to be a shining example, worthy of Amon-Ra's wisdom in ruling their country.

He loved his brother, though. Moses was the one part of palace life that never seemed to fit into the lessons he learned daily. The one part of life that defied rhyme and ritual both, with his wild nature. As much as Ramses knew every word his father uttered was true, he also knew in his heart of hearts that he could not resist his brother's imploring for adventuresome outings.

Maybe it would be better if they went hunting along the Nile, the next time Moses was so full of restless energy. Then his duty and his love of his brother could match, without another painful encounter with Seti's displeasure.

`~`~`~`~`

Moses looked up from where he was perched on the scribe's stool in Ramses' room. He had already taken advantage of the long lecture to go clean up, and was wearing a fresh clout and waist-wrapped kilt to wait. He watched his brother take him in, heard the deep sigh as Ramses turned to let a slave help him disrobe. When he was down to his breech clout alone, he dismissed everyone but Moses, something that the younger brother was relieved at.

"I didn't mean to get us in trouble," Moses began.

"You never mean to, brother. And all too often, it is not 'us' so much as I who pays for it." Ramses moved to go to his water basin. Moses joined him, wetting a cloth in the cool water.

"I am sorry," he said in a contrite tone. "Let me make it up to you?"

Ramses looked at his much-loved brother, all attempt in his own mind and heart to chastise Moses properly fleeing under that penitent look turned his way. "How do you do this, brother mine? You have but to speak, or merely look at a person in a certain way, and you are able to convince them you are a gift from Isis Herself. I will have to make you my vizier of viziers when I am the Morning Sun at last."

Moses laughed at that pronouncement. "I think the court would be shocked if you did." He took the wet cloth then, beginning a slow, thorough sponging of all the grime from the race off of Ramses' body. Ramses let his eyes close, appreciating the care. It was not such a new thing, this closeness between them in the aftermath of a disaster. Moses, of all the young nobles, was the only one Ramses knew he could trust in and out of the palace, for anything.

"Just promise me, Moses, that if we must find such trouble to get into, that you'll always be there to make it worthwhile after the fact." Ramses opened his eyes, so that he could see the other's face, as Moses paused in the sponge bath.

"You know I will, brother." He smiled, the twinkle in his eyes, as he ran the cloth along the skin of the stomach that was hard with war training and charioteering. He kept his eyes on Ramses', waiting for the answer of the unspoken question. Ramses tipped his face down toward Moses', and that was the perfect answer, as the younger of the brothers stood up fully and offered a kiss to the future Morning Sun.

Ramses firmly took the cloth away from Moses, letting it fall to the floor, before guiding him into the sleeping chamber, never letting Moses get far from him. With his father's words of duty and responsibility fading from the front of his mind, and the appeal of his brother's love growing stronger, Ramses stripped away what remained of their clothing.

Moses gave him everything that court life failed in, and that, Ramses thought, was another form of Ma'at.


End file.
